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Citizenship Review…. a new order for order?….

Apropos of absolutely nothing… save to introduce my latest post… I had the pleasure a few years ago (in another guise) of meeting Lord Goldsmith at The House of Lords when he was Attorney-General and being shown around a fantastically over decorated series of rooms with thrones and bizarre Victorian wallpaper. I think it may even have been blue wallpaper. The interior design and architecture of the Houses of Parliament is not to my taste – but, there again, I am not an architect or designer. I know that many leading Victorians had a fondness for what are now Class A drugs…. perhaps these ‘potions’ may have played a part? Who knows? A personal view… I am a citizen of our country and entitled, still, at least for the present, to express a personal opinion. I may be going against the grain of Land of Hope and Glory here…. but…. to me… over the top it is. I do, however, like Big Ben at New Year… but that is because, like many, I am over refreshed on that one night of the year.

I will not be making any oaths of allegiance – as mooted by the present government, to the ire of Scots, Welsh and the Northern Irish – to The Queen or country. Curiously, the English, if the absence of press reports is any indicator, don’t seem to have even bothered to read the announcement on this oath of allegiance business. But that is why I rather like the English…. it just isn’t an issue of any interest or concern to most people – except the spivniks in the present government who wish to shape our destiny for ever.

Anyway… back to the post….I enjoyed the meeting – it was about legal education generally. [Peter Goldsmith QC, when Chairman of The Bar, took a great deal of interest in legal education] He was an excellent and affable host for that meeting and made those attending most welcome.

Lord Goldsmith has not been idle since leaving office as A-G. He has produced a report on British Citizenship. I have been up since 1.00 am… and I have skimmed through most of it. Here it is. Read and be informed. Find out who we are and what belonging to Great Britain PLC means… in the eyes of the present administration.

For my part… I prefer to think of a Britain shaped by Shakespeare and other writers and commentators from a more spirtual, artistic, historical, philosophical or humanitarian bent, than the present government. We must, by definition, live in a Britain hammered out by politicians, many of whom happen to be lawyers, but I prefer to think, overregulation aside, that we live in a Britain of a more sophisticated hue in our minds when we are not busy complying with the thousands of laws we have and when we are trying not to be caught on the ever present and intruding CCTV.

I will leave the pleasures of digesting Lord Goldsmith’s Citizenship Review to you without comment. Adulteration of wine, spirits and ideas by the intervention of others is not always useful

PS… there is even a section on Treason on page 40 of this 134 page peroration on a theme. The review must have been quite expensive to conduct. A lot of people contributed to it. One wonders what the government is actually going to do with it. New laws, of course, but will all our lawmakers actually read this report assiduously? Will anyone apart from journos, political and legal correspondents, academic commentators and those who contibuted to the report, read it?

This is why I am urging you to do so. I am a Citizen… England… and the rest of our sceptred isle expects… but I suspect that the review will not feature heavily in the Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish Press. I haven’t seen a lot of commentary on it in the English press come to that.

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